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Raping Dakota…

Twelve-year-old Dakota Fanning being raped by a young boy is at the center of a controversy between filmmakers and religious groups right now. In the film, Hounddog, Dakota’s character is shown in her underwear, abused by her father and raped by another teen in the movie.

Religious groups are up in arms, saying that the filmmakers may have broken laws regarding child pornography. The filmmakers contend that no laws were broken because it’s a movie and she wasn’t really being raped. In fact, all that you really see on screen are shots of her neck, shoulders, foot and hand. The religious groups are pushing forward, asking the US Justice Department to investigate whether laws were broken, and they are also collecting hundreds of signatures on petitions to persuade law enforcement to prosecute the filmmakers.

Dakota feels that the whole thing is being “blown out of proportion”. According to her, “I’m not going through anything like that, it’s just my character. It’s called acting.”

Typical of most religious groups, they’d rather sweep problems like child molestation and child rape under the carpet. Perhaps not hearing about it means that it didn’t happen and doesn’t exist. Of course, quite a few Catholic priest now a little something about child molestation.

Personally, issues like this need to be brought out into the open, not only to make people more aware of the problem but because they can be used as a conduit for discussion. Sheltering children from the realities of the world, in my opinion, just makes them less prepared to live in the world and know what to do when presented with a circumstance outside of the bubble their parents created for them. Children get raped, and people need to stop pretending that it doesn’t happen.

Films need to address these problems and Hollywood needs to support filmmakers that are willing to step outside of the box and graphically portray things that make people uncomfortable. And religious groups need to get over it and stop pretending that we live in a world of perfection.

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